For April’s Tiger Club, we travel to Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska. This spectacular photo shows the amazing blues that can occur in this land of ice and snow. I decided to keep things simple, and mixed up the bright ocean blue (which required 3 different blues to achieve!), plus a soft grey and a black, and of course I let the wool itself shine as our ‘snow’.
The wool combed top this month is Radnor, a rare breed from the United Kingdom. It’s a medium to medium coarse wool, averaging about 32 microns, and a staple length that can range from 3-6 inches (this top is coming in around 3-4). It takes bright/strong colors beautifully. If you’d like to learn more about the breed (and see a number of adorable sheep and lamb photographs), here’s a link to the Hill Radnor Society.
I chose to dye the wool in a shorter color palindrome (so down and back again). It should be great for making stripes, or take it apart and make a gradient if that’s your preference. This wool is great for sturdier applications, such as mittens (lined with something softer), boot toppers, maybe even a bag. If you are more tolerant of the wool feel in general, I think it would be good for socks, also.
It’s definitely time for a self-striping yarn, and my fave Safari is a great base for it. I worked up a winding method that kept the grey/black areas roughly the same width as the blue areas, and did a crammed kettle dye. It made the colors break a bit, lending some violet to the grey at times, and making some batches glacier blue areas with more variation than others. The swatch shown is a 64 stitch tube at about 7 stitches per inch. If you prefer solid toes and heels, a black would pair nicely with this pattern.
I have openings in Tiger Club for May, and then Club will close to new members for at least June, perhaps the whole summer (although you can always ask to join the wait list!) Thanks for joining our latest adventure!
